If it's a perishable skill - use it or lose it.
I had scheduled a vaca at San Diego Comic Con but shortly before the trip we learned that they were having an auction of municipal owned cars locally. Chris and Mike from the office braved the crowds at the auction and got the best of the bunch!
While disappointed I couldn't be there to help with the auction, I did get to meet some cool people at SDCC!
But I digress...Chris had shown prowess for the auction setting and got the perfect one (for CHEAP)!
“There's a lot more to do..."
You're probably wondering...why a police car. Well, a couple of good reasons.
(1) When I was in New Jersey, this was one of the vehicles I learned on. So, there's some personal comfort to this choice and some knowledge I can work from to have it set up for our uses.
(2) Ford Crown Vic's are built to take a beating. In part because they are built for everyday and hard use but also because they have been well maintained by a municipal (until it was time to take them off the road).
(3) The parts are readily available and are thus extremely affordable to repair and maintain.
(4) They have a ton of power! These are V8, rear wheel drive vehicles (while more difficult than say a FWD vehicle, they can do a lot more in the drifting department).
(5) They can be found affordably at auction.
The downside is that these cars often sit for a long period of time before they go to auction. The elements can be cruel, especially to parts of the car that have some damage (from taking official things off the vehicle and the general hard use that can go with such a vehicle).
The first thing we did was fix the top of the car as it was accruing rust in several spots from what I can assume was antennas and light brackets. We also had to clean the graphics off the vehicle, they took them off just enough to read as not an official car but it looked rough.
What made this one special is the damage was minimal (compared to what else was coming out of DPD) and the millage was extremely low - 80k!
There's a lot more to do...(headlights, rear lights, interior clean up, front bumper bracket, rear bumper paint, damage from door light, hydraulic stunt break, and general service).
But so far, so good!
...updates soon!
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